Walker

Carter is great at finding new uses for his old toys ...

Here's a video of him playing with his "improved" walker (I had to split it into 2 videos to get it to upload). At the end of the second clip, he "talks" like he was doing all day. When we were at the grocery store, Carter was so loud that people at the other end of the aisle were turning to look at us.

Diapers

Carter is driving me nuts. For the last several days we waits until 5 minutes after he has a new diaper to poop. We have been going through so many more diapers. He did this to me 3 times today. If he's not careful, I'm going to switch him to cheap diapers!

I can't really be mad at him though. He's just too cute. Here's a picture from the other day of Carter watching Charlotte play outside ...

Super Bowl Sunday

After doing chores around the house today ...


we went over to Chad and Amy's house for their Super Bowl Party. I think Brian got to watch some of the game (I saw absolutely none of the game and about 2 commercials). Carter wouldn't sit still and we ended up chasing him around most of the time. He did good though considering he wouldn't take an afternoon nap.

Carter LOVES Amy's dog Sadie ...


and the rocking chair at her house ...


I didn't get any good pictures of the kids together, but Carter and Caitlyn walked around holding hands a few times - it was very cute!

We left about midway through the 3rd quarter before Carter started getting too cranky. He fell asleep immediately in the car and wasn't too moody when we had to wake him up to get him ready for bed.

Note: Carter likes to copy me when I'm cleaning up. He always wants to take control of the vacuum though he tends to vacuum the same exact spot until he gets bored. He also really likes to wipe things with a towel. He seems to be copying me dusting or wiping up the counters or table.

Carter's New Room

I finished painting the main color in Carter's new room today. We still need to add the vertical random stripes. I like the color it ended up. Lowe's did a good job of matching the Glidden color with their Olympic paint. Here's a picture ...


I'll try to catch up on posting tomorrow. It's been a busy few days and Carter has a cold so he's been cranky and not letting me get much done during the day.

Ultrasound

I had the anatomy ultrasound this afternoon for the new baby. Everything looked great! His heart rate was a strong 164 bpm. He measured well everywhere. He's a tad larger than he should be for our due date of July 5th. His measurements put him at a due date of June 29th, but my official due date hasn't changed. He has all his limbs and essential organs. He was jerking around as he should. I haven't felt him much yet and the ultrasound tech said it would take longer to feel him because the placenta is on the front side.

Here are the ultrasound pictures the tech gave us today. They aren't great, but at least they are something. I was disappointed that she didn't flip on the 3D ultrasound like she did at every ultrasound she did of Carter. Seems like they are getting a little more stingy with that at my doctor's office. Oh well.





That last one is of the baby's leg and foot. Random.

I go back next week for a regular appointment with my doctor.

Both Brian and Carter came to my appointment today. As usual, we had to wait an hour before we got to go back. When setting up my next appointment I asked for a time that would hopefully require the shortest wait because we've been in the waiting room over an hour with all my appointments so far with this pregnancy and Carter can only be good for so long.

After my appointment we met Sarah and Mary Grace for dinner at Pimento's. Mary Grace did awesome but Carter started melting down near the end of dinner. He only had one nap today and was exhausted after an hour of running around the mostly empty waiting room at my doctor's office (it was completely empty the last 30 minutes).

Little Monkey

Carter has started climbing absolutely everything the last few weeks. Here are just a few examples. (Note: None of the pictures include Carter actually standing on the items because instead of taking a picture, I've been quickly getting him down and telling him not to climb up on the item again.)

My box of maternity clothes in our closet.


Diapers that I've been storing in the dormer of Carter's bathroom.


The outside of Carter's crib.


A kitchen chair.


The ottoman that goes with the glider in his nursery. I don't know how he was able to get to a standing position because the ottoman glides as well.


The outside of the steps.


And the best ... Carter will stand on the seat of his Power Wheel and stand up straight with no hands.


There have been no major injuries YET.

18 Weeks

I'm 18 weeks along today with "new baby" (that's his name for now - we're going to be last minute on making a name decision again). I've been feeling pretty good lately. I'm not as tired and haven't had any nausea in awhile. My back is starting to hurt, but it's manageable. Carter has been really clingy lately and wants to be picked up a lot so that's just wearing me out. I can occasionally feel new baby move a little, but it's nothing significant or consistent yet.

Here's a belly picture from today as well as the picture from 16 weeks:

18 weeks ...


16 weeks ...


Brian and I picked up paint for Carter's new room yesterday. I was able to get it all taped during Carter's nap this afternoon and will probably start painting the edging tomorrow. The colors we picked out are Glidden colors, but we had Lowe's match them with Olympic paint since it has no VOCs and is very low odor. I helped paint Carter's current nursery with Olympic paint when I was pregnant with him and it seemed plenty safe.



We finally got Carter eating some meat other than ham this past week. He ate a hot dog, Chick-fil-A nuggets, and some of my cheeseburger from Five Guys. I've been resisting offering him this type of food because I don't think it's really that healthy for him, but I know he also needs more protein in his diet. Carter always had a vegetable before these so he's still eating some healthy food with each meal. I know having this stuff once in a while isn't bad, I just don't want him to only like this sort of food and it become a fight to eat healthier stuff.

I can't believe it, but I'm still nursing Carter too. He just refuses to drink milk and I refuse to let him get dehydrated so end up giving him water and nursing him. Hopefully we'll have a breakthrough soon!

Snow Day

We didn't necessarily get the snow that was predicted, but we definitely got some. It started snowing at our house around 3:30 pm yesterday. It snowed for a few hours and then we got freezing rain starting around 6:30 pm. We seemed to get a mix of both overnight because there was probably a couple of inches of snow on the ground when we got up, but it was also very icy on top. We got a mix of everything throughout the day - often times it was rain. Then this afternoon we got some steady snow for a few hours.

I decided around 5 pm that we should try taking Carter out for a little bit. It took about as long to dress us all as we spent outside. Carter doesn't have any waterproof pants so he got to wear 2 regular pairs of pants. He also had a onesie, sweater, fleece, and jacket on. He was still able to move though :)

Carter was pretty excited when I first put him down to stand in the snow.


I love this cute face ...


Carter lost his balance and fell on his butt - he did not like having a cold bottom!


I had to pull out an old jacket from our Goodwill pile that was big enough to zip and long enough to cover the snow pants I was wearing that I couldn't zipper! My belly has really expanded these last few weeks!


Brian and Carter ...


Trying out standing in the snow again ...


Another cute face ...


Giving the Carter-sized snowman Brian and I rolled a pat ...


My lame attempt at giving the snowman some character ...


We were only outside probably 15 minutes, but at least we finally got Carter out in the snow!

Carter's New Room Layout?

Here's a potential layout for Carter's new room if we use the furniture from the last post. It's pretty much to scale. If you click on the drawing, you should get a bigger version that you can actually see.

Carter's New Furniture?

I spent last night trying to figure out what to do for furniture for Carter's new room. I want to get him a crib that converts to a toddler bed, but I see us only using it for a year or year and a half. We could then convert the toddler bed into a full bed, but the room we're moving Carter into is long and I think a twin bed would fit better in the room. Besides, I can't imagine such a little kid in a big full bed. I just like twin beds better for when kids are young. So, I basically don't want to spend a lot on a crib and crib mattress.

So, if I get a cheaper crib, should I buy other "cheap" furniture to finish the room? Or go ahead and get a good dresser and bookcase that we can then match a twin bed frame to when we're ready? I think I'm leaning towards getting a "long-term" dresser and bookcase. I also need a place to still change Carter's diapers and store all that stuff. So I either need a basic changing table or a dresser that's low enough and long enough for a changing pad and a basket for diapers, wipes, etc.

This is the furniture I'm currently thinking of buying ...

Graco Lauren Classic Convertible Crib in Espresso:


(This crib is no longer sold with the dropside so it's safe!) Target has this crib on sale for $139.99 and they are throwing in a free mattress if you buy it online (a Kolcraft Pediatric 1000 Crib Mattress). And they have free shipping. The mattress isn't amazing (it only costs $40.99) but it has good reviews. I checked it out at Target yesterday and it is softer than Carter's current mattress, but we're not worried about a soft mattress and SIDS anymore. And I don't really want to spend $100-$150 on a mattress that we're not going to use for long. Besides, if Carter hates it, it's free and we can always get a new mattress without feeling like we wasted money. When I was at Babies R Us yesterday getting diapers, I checked out the crib and I like how it looks. It's not as heavy looking as a lot of their cribs (but a lot of their cribs cost $400+), but it doesn't look too basic or cheap either. The crib is made in other colors, but it costs about $20 more and doesn't come with a free mattress. I think I like the dark color and I think it looks good with the paint we picked out for Carter's room. I'm finding this deal hard to pass up!

Target makes the bookcase that we currently have in Carter's room in an espresso stain as well. It's held up well so far (we actually have a few more of the same style of bookcase in other rooms in the house and they all still look great too). Here's a picture of it:


It costs $69.99, but Target always puts these bookcases on sale so if we wait, we should be able to get it for about $54.99.

Now, my big dilemma ... the dresser. Right now, I'm leaning towards this Canopy dresser from Walmart (it also has wood knobs you can use instead of the silver):


I'm usually not a fan of Walmart furniture, but we have the console table from this collection in our office and it is really well made. The drawers are all wood instead of having those flimsy particle board bottoms. I also think the style matches the crib well. And it's big enough. We could use the extra drawers for blankets and other storage. This would be our "splurge" as it costs $299.96. I've seen some other dressers that aren't bad and in the $200-$300 range, but most are either too tall and/or too narrow to use as a changing table. I'm going to continue looking at dressers a little more before buying this one, but it's my favorite so far.

Does anyone see any flaws in my logic here? Any suggestions on what's best to do? I've looked a little and think we'll be able to find a twin bed frame in the espresso color to match the other furniture when we need it. I'm going to try to draw out the room and layout of the furniture in Visio today to make sure everything will fit as I think it should. I'll try to post that later if I'm able to do it.